Internal combustion motor



May 21, 1935. l@WRIGHT 2&002230 INTERNAL CO'MBUSTION MOTOR Filed Jan. 4, 195o A TTORN YS.

- motors, preferably of the two-cycle type, 5 a novel type of control therefor.

Patented May 2l, 1935 UNIT-ED STATES INTERNAL coMBUsfrIoN Moron.

Gilbert Wright, Granville Center, Mass., assignor of one-half to Holland N. Stevenson, Pelham,

Application January 4, 1930, Serial No. 418,624

2 Claims.

Introduction This invention relates to internal combustion and to A number of attempts have been made to introduce the two-cycle engine in automobile practice; however, none of these attempts has met with lasting success. Among other reasons, the difiiculty. of satisfactorily operating and controlling two-cycleengines at-idling speeds or at high speeds equal to or at least approaching those of modern four-cycleautomob'ile engines has heretofore prevented the two-cycle engine from becoming a seriouscompetitor of the four-cycle type in the field of automobile drives. One of the undisputed advantages of the two-cycle engine is its high overall volumetric efficiency as compared to the volumetricemciency of the fourcycle engine of the sam`e rating and speed of revolution. If speeds between 2000 to 3000 R.. P. M. are selected, the time available for scavenging and charging is so short in the former two. cycle designs `that regulation under variable charging and runningconditions becomes very unreliable.

The advantages vof my new control are/ particularly evident in engines for automobile and similar drives because the'loads and speeds of such engines change almost continually and because partial loads preponderate. For this reason, I shall choose an automobile engine as the best illustration for my invention without intending to restrict the invention to such and similar drives.

Generally speaking, the object of this invention is to provide a high-speed two-cycle internal combustion engine ofv the type using a gaseous mixture under a low pre-compression, which engine-operates under all load and speed conditions wth practically constant mixture composition of the same pre-compression pressure, thus insuring excellent combustion under all conditions,l andV rendering the engine particularly suited for automobile and similar drives of conp tinually changing speeds and partial loads; in other words, the object is to provide a high-speed internal combustion engine of said kind which requires little space and little first cost compared to an equivalent four-cycle engine, and has a better overal1 efliciency than the four-cycle engine. Still other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in later paragraphs of the specification (CL 12S-198) Drawing In the drawing- Fig. 1 is a horizontal cross-section through the mixture pump, also showing the separate admission conduits for the air and fuel supply and Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of the preferred form of arrangement on one and the same shaft of the auxiliary apparatus comprising the mixture pump, the water and oil circulating 10 pumps, and the fan; also showing the electric motor drive for the shaft and the electric connection between the accelerator pedal and the electric motor.

Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of the assem-f 15 bling of the engine E with the auxiliary-apparatus. For the sake of simplicity only one cylinder bloei: with two cylinders is shown, and the auxiliary equipment is so arranged besides the block controlled from the accelerator pedal 50. Normally, lthe accelerator pedal is urged upwardly 30 away from the floor board 52 by the spring 5l.` A lever arm 53 pivoted on a post 54 is connected at its one end tothe pedal by means of a fork engagement. The other free end of the lever arm rides over a number of electric contacts. 35 Normally, the lever bears on the lowermost con: tact, as shown in the iigure. In this position the electric currentwill ow from the battery 44 through the motor 4|, the wire conne'ction 51 to the lever arm 53, and thence by way of the' 40 contact through the entire set of resistances V56 and back through wire `58 to the battery. But when the driver depresses the pedal more and more resistancewill be cutout unti at the uppermost contactengagement allresi nce is cut 4Q out, thus allowing the motor to run at its maximum speed.

This arrangement may, of course, be modied in various ways. However, the principle of this or any other equivalent arrangement which I 50 wish to emphasize here is that "the speed of the auxiliary shaft is entirely Iindependent of the working conditions of the engine and is exclusively .controlled by the operator ofthe engine.

The auxiliary shaft drives the radiator fan II 45, the water circulation pump 68, the oil circulation pump l0, and the mixture pump 88. This common drive of the various auxiliary apparatus from a shaft controlled in the way as stated before represents a preferred form of coupling. The fan, the water pump, and the oil pump might also be mounted in the usual manner on shafts driven from the engine. But, as will be seen later on, the common drive has decided advantages over the separate drives.

All pumps are of the centrifugal, radially discharging type with axial admission of the fluid to the impeller. All of them operate on the same hydraulic principle and, for this reason, I shall c onflne myself to -a more detailed description of the mixture pump, which is shown in cross-section in Fig.'1.

Structure of the .mixture pump The casing of the pump consists of two halvesr 83 and 84 which form. a`mixture chamber 8| be` tween their peripheral portions. This mixture chamber opens through a flange attachment 82 into the admission channel |6 of the engine cylinders. One of the two halves of the casing carries the air intake chamber 85. At 86 and 81 the casing is provided with bearing surfaces which, by means of interposed sleeves 88 and 89 support the stationary casing on the rotating sleeve 99 and the rotating hub 9| respectively. The sleeve and hub are rigidly connected to the auxiliary shaft 48. The hub is provided with a plurality of circumferentially spaced air inlet conduits 92. Also circumferentially spaced on the hub, but always situated between two consecutive air inlets, are a number of fuel jet pipes 96. The hub carries two disks 93 and 94 which form between their inner faces the concentric space |83 and, together with the hub, represent the impeller of the pump. The air which enters the impeller through the inlet conduits 92 is driven radially outwardly and is being com-v pressed during this travel, for which reason the space between the disks is made tapering towards the periphery. y

'I'he fuel is fed from-a fuel tank through pipe connection 99. The cap 91 is screwed down in the casing of -the pump luntil it' bears on the conical faces 98 of the hub. In this way a fluidsealed cavity 95 adjacent the extremity of shaft 48 is obtained from where the fuel is driven by centrifugal forces through the fueljet pipes 96. The cap is provided with bores lou and lol and the fuel passage through these bores may be regulated by the adjusting screw |82. For clearness, in the figure and description as well," all structural details have been omitted as far as they are not necessary for an understanding of the working principles' of this pump. Various structural modifications could be made to produce the same effect. The space between the disks is preferably subdivided in a plurality of sectors by vanes |02' radially or spirally extending between the disks, to produce the usual impelling action common to centrifugal blowers.

Operation of the mixture pump I shall n'ow explain the behavior of the mixture pump under various driving conditions. In this context, the admission system as a whole should be thought of as comprising the pump which generates a hydraulic head proportional to the square of the angular velocity of the -impeller, the admission conduits, the annular admission channel, the ports, the cylinder and the exhaust conduits. The propagationl of the charge in the system will generally be proportional to the speed of the impeller, y

The generated hydraulic heads in the pump are not the samel for the fuel and for the air,

nely distributing the fuel jet, thus causing a very thorough'mixture of the fuel and the air. As a consequence, the mixture obtained in the peripheral chamber 8| ofthe pump contains the gasoline in a vaporous state. In the standard carburetors, due to the `required much wider opening of the jetnozzle, the gasoline-is suspended in the airfin liquid form. It is a known fact that, in order to overcome the disadvantages of such a suspension mixture, many makers of cars provide their carburetors with pre-heating devices. It would, of course, also be possible to reduce the head of the fuel by keeping the fuel pipes shorter. I prefer, however, to extend the fuel pipes to the peripheral discharge opening of the Adisks 93, 94, as shown in Fig. 1, in order to obtain the desired vaporization effect stated before.

With given dimensions of the yair and fuel discharge openings in the impeller of the pump, the

ratio of the fuel head to the head of the air will changes such as due to variations in the atmose pheric pressure, etc. Without disturbing this constancy of mixture composition, throttling means for the fuel and the air may, however,-be provided before the entrance of the mixture constituents into the pump. I prefer to use a small adjusting screw |02 for the exclusive regulation of the fuel flow. This screw adjustment is supposed tq be permanent for a given engine design.

Instead of a mixture pump working on the principles as set forth before, I might, of course,

use other means for the'preparation of a suitable mixture. For instance, entirely separate means for the mixing process and for the charging function could be provided, or, a combined mixing and charging device could be so designed as to first suck the fuel and air into a separate mixing chamber and then press it from there into the admission system. Such and similar modifications would, naturally, lie within the scope of my invention.

Operation of engine in connection with mixture Pump,

The reason why I prefer the mixture pump, as described before, is because this design has a number of decided advantages over other constructions which might take its place. 'I'he rectilinear relation between the speed of the impeller and the pressure of the charge introduced into the cylinder and the reliability of receiving a constant-composition mixture from the pump have been pointed out already before. Other advantages are the small space required by the pump and the low inertial momentum of the runner, which latter feature makes it possible to accelerate the pump rapidly and, consequently, to change almost instantaneously from one speed of the car to another, a possibility of paramount importance in the operation of an automobile. In order to insure the possibly greatest flexibility of acceleration and retardation with a comparatively low torque and low momentum electric motor I, preferably, make the auxiliary shaft, the impeller of the pump, and all other parts' coupled to the auxiliary shaft from light aluminum alloys. When the driver suddenly lifts his foot from the accelerator pedal, my engine will, then, brake the speed of the car in the same way as is the casein a car of standard equipment.

Qperation of the water, air, and ov'l circulation It has been mentioned valready before that the oil and water pumps are designed along the same general'lines as the mixture pump, and they operate on the same general hydraulic principles. 'Ihe fluid current circulated in these two systems will be a function of the speed of the auxiliary shaft. The speed of the auxiliary shaft determines the average indicated load of the cylinder, irrespective of the speed of the engine,'and this load is practically proportional to the speed of the auxiliary shaft. With a sufficient degree of' approximation it may be said then that the cooling eifect on the engine is nearly proportional to the load ofJ the engine. In a similar way it'may `be said that the mean heat transmission from the total heat dissipating surfaces of the cylinder is fairly proportional to the mean cated load on the cylinders. If, according to my preferred arrangement, also the radiator fan isdriven from the auxiliary shaft similar considerations` as to heat dissipation will apply tothe radiator. From this, then. it follows that the temperature. of the engine will change but little under varying load and speed conditions of the engine provided. of course, that the atmospheric temperature is the same.r

It is a known fact that standard automobile engines show a very different behavior. They are overcooled at lower loads and medium speeds, they become toowarm at high speeds, and they heat up excessively when climbing grades for some longer time. The cooling effect in these engines is nearly proportional to the speed of the car, while the load varies approximately with the third power of the speed. The faulty operation of the carburetor on grades results in mover-development of waste heat, while the cooling effect is diminished by the drop in speed.

For these reasons, the cooling plant of standard engines is considerably overrated for normal driving conditions. Besides other undesirable effects, the result of such overrating is a reduction in output of the fuel. Artificial means such as thermostats in the circulation` cannot materially improve these conditions. It will be understood now v 1. An internal combustion motor having cylinder, piston, and' valve mechanism, motive means operable at a speedy independent of that of the motor, a pump for gaseous fuel actuated by said motive means, and a pump for cooling fluid actuated by said motive means. A

2. An internal combustion motor havimr mech- 'anism for supplying a combustible gas thereto, means for varying the rate of supply of said gas .independently of the speed of the motor, and

means for causing a flow of cooling iluid to the motor at a rate proportional to the rate at which saidv gas is supplied to the motor.

GILBERT WRIGHT. 

